Customer Experience is a Critical Component of Brand Building

Customer experience is a critical component of brand building. For the past few months, I have written about the importance of aligning a brand organization in support of a customer focused purpose. Companies that have a shared goal of improving people’s lives supported by a set of values that they practice and live everyday deliver stronger financial performance than competition. Consumers also feel that these brands deliver a better customer experience.

Yesterday the Temkin Group http://www.temkingroup.com/ published their 2013 Experience Ratings. In the study, consumers were asked to rate experiences that they had with brands during the previous 60 days. A total of 246 brands across 19 industries were measured. The questions, asked on a seven-point scale covered the three components of a customer’s experience: functional, accessible and emotional. I am pleased to report that several of the brands that I have written about as examples of companies with a customer focused purpose were rated high by the Temkin study. Publix was ranked number one for customer experience followed by Trader Joe’s at number two. Amazon placed 5th, Nordstrom 13th, Starbucks 20th and Whole Foods 36th. Several of the brands that I think deliver excellent customer experiences were not included in the report. Four Season Hotels and Resorts, Wegmans and Zappos were not rated.

The Temkin Group has identified four competencies that companies must master to build and sustain customer experience leadership:

Purposeful Leadership: Operate consistently with a clear set of values

Employee Engagement: Align employees with the goals of the organization

Health Insurance Providers, Airlines and Cable Companies continue to deliver some of the worst customer experiences. These ratings should be a wake up to the brands in the lower half of the index. Its time to improve your customer experience.